Hiroshima Bunkyo Women’s University (HBWU), in 2014, implemented a course of once-a-month,45-minute study sessions titled プログラム「育心」－for the purpose of this paper to be translated into “Enriching the Mind Program” (EMP). The translation of the explanation of the EMP in the student handbook is as follows:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------育心育人の精神に基づく他者への配慮，多様性への理解，自らの人間性の向上を通して人間性あふれる豊かな社会を実現しようとする態度を身につけることができます。“Based on the notion of “Enriching the Mind and the Self,” students can acquire the attitudesnecessary to realize a rich and humane society through improving themselves personally,considering others, and understanding diversity.”-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Being both broad and vague, there appears to be no consensus among the university departments as to what to teach in the EMP. The HBWU president at the time of writing this paper, Mr. Morishita, stated that the Enriching the Mind Program (EMP) curriculum is to be decided by each individual department with the express purpose of teaching the students what they need to develop for becoming useful members of society. This leaves space for a lot of variation in what is taught during through the EMP. Since each student will have unique needs, this vagueness could be viewed as a positive aspect. However, lack of coordination, collaboration or conversation has led to disparate programs with disparate goals between departments. To open up the conversation and begin a bit of collaboration Nevitt and Oka began to work together on creating an EMP unit. Oka, a native-born Japanese and the head of the Early Childhood Education Department, feels that the EMP time should be spent in cultivating student morality. Nevitt, a native-born American and lecturer in the Global Communication Department, feels that self-awareness should be the goal of the EMP lessons. The following paper is about the first stage in which the authors review the teaching for virtues as one possible way of teaching morality. Being the first stage of this study, there are no conclusions, but the authors are hopeful it will become an ongoing process, into which more educators will become involved, toward finding a suitable EMP curriculum for Hiroshima Bunkyo Women’s University.